Jay Wigglesworth Jensen writes: “I was interested in your name tier for Cultist Simulator. However, I’m concerned about whether or not you’d find my name suitable- it’s Jay Wigglesworth Jensen, and me backing on that tier is, honestly, contingent on getting my middle name in. Would that be acceptable?” The ‘name tier’ is the one that Kickstarters often have: “Your name, or Read more

Most everyone who cares knows, but I thought I should recognise it formally here: Cultist Simulator was funded in a smidge over twelve hours. This is a lot better than I expected. Almost 40% of the pledges so far have come from a mailshot to my old Failbetter fanbase, and I want to publicly thank Read more

The Kickstarter for Cultist Simulator is live. More than that, it’s alive. Five minutes, thirty-five backers, past the 1k mark already! It’s a good feeling to see so many familiar names popping up. Hello there. And thank you!! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1144821177/cultist-simulator-behold-our-end?ref=hm5toz

Sometimes the right name is inevitable. Sunless Sea was the obvious name from the moment the idea showed up. Sometimes they need tweaking. When I first pitched its sequel, it was always going to be called ‘Sunless Sky’; after I left Failbetter, the team changed it to ‘Sunless Skies’ (out tomorrow, people!) because they got understandably nervous. Read more

Last week I shared an image of the 1923 two-volume edition of the Locksmith’s Dream – ‘The Light through the Keyhole’ and ‘Portions and Proportions’. I was aware that the first three volumes were republished as separate editions, but I hadn’t expected ever to see them. I was excited – but also rather alarmed – Read more

I’ve been asked: you got to work for [client]! How did you manage that? The answer is: I spent seven years building a games studio with a reputation for interactive writing. This isn’t a route available to most people, so it sounds glib to say it. Another answer is to talk about the criteria that I used to hire writers Read more

Actually my title was ‘How Things End’, but I prefer their subhead. I’ve written about the way endings in games have changed in response to technology and biz, and where we might go in the future. I’ve really enjoyed the Eurogamer columns! But my brain is full of dragons at the moment (yes, I’m allowed Read more

There’s not much point blogging during GDC – only like six people will ever read this – but it’s timely today and I keep meaning to blow the dust off this thing. Failbetter, the company I founded and later tearfully sold, is concluding a very successful Kickstarter for their next project, Sunless Skies, a narrative Read more

This is the side project I’ve been working on for the last few months. It’s really only an alpha: just a sliver of content, rough edges on the UI, some bugs. In an unusual commercial strategy, I’m going to halt development on it next week and not touch anything for some months. This is annoying for Read more